National Briefing | South: Georgia: Overturning Of Death Sentence Upheld

By Ariel Hart (NYT)

Published: June 8, 2005

The State Supreme Court unanimously agreed with a lower court to overturn the death sentence of a man whose lawyers failed to present evidence that he had saved two lives. The man, William M. Gulley, 51, was convicted of killing an 81-year-old woman and raping her 61-year-old daughter in 1994. The court ruled on Monday that Mr. Gulley's trial lawyers did not take ''fairly obvious'' measures to find witnesses or medical reports that said he saved a man from electrocution and a woman from jumping out of a window in 1992, though they had seen a newspaper article about the acts. Prosecutors said they were considering whether to retry the sentencing. Ariel Hart (NYT)